1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to separator cards usable with currency and other document processing, identification, sorting and counting machines.
2. Description of Related Art
High speed, continuous processing of paper of value (e.g. bank notes or currency) as well as checks and other documents using machines that scan the documents, recognize differences and discriminate between the documents, and count and sort the documents typically use a separator sheet between batches of documents to enable the machine to continuously process the different batches of documents without commingling the documents or data related to the documents. Such separator sheets, typically called separator cards, are interleaved between the separate batches of documents to be processed and contain machine readable indicia or codes that enable various sensors within the machine to recognize the separator card, read data on the card, and discriminate the separator card from the documents being processed.
High speed document processing machines of the type described above typically contain sensors and software that enable the machine to sense and identify various information or data associated with the documents as well as the separator cards. Such sensors, for example, include devices that measure physical properties of the documents (e.g., thickness sensors), optical character recognition systems, magnetic sensors for detecting magnetic coded information provided on or in the documents, bar code scanners and magnetic character reading systems.
It is highly desirable that the various batches of documents to be processed through such machines be maintained in discrete bundles or batches so that the data derived from each batch may be processed within the machine to provide reports reflecting various information desired concerning the respective batches of documents. For example, if the documents comprise currency, each batch of currency may comprise an individual account deposit that is to be counted, sorted and credited to an individual account without substantial human intervention. The processing of the currency, for example, may be carried out by a commercial bank, a central bank or within a private or public enterprise, such as a gambling casino or municipal transit authority. Separator cards are useful to enable the machine to discern the beginning and end of individual batches of documents and a description of such a system, including a separator card configuration is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,930 granted Jun. 29, 1999. Reference may be made to this patent for a further description of a representative application of separator cards in high speed currency processing machines.
In accordance with known principles, separator cards should be recognizable using various sensors already provided in the document processing equipment and furthermore, in the event of a misfeed resulting in both a separator card and a document being fed simultaneously through the machine sensors, it is desirable that the sensors will discern the presence of the separator card even though it may be covered by such document. Typically, this is a accomplished by using magnetic sensors to detect magnetic strips imprinted or otherwise provided on the separator card in a pattern or array that enables the sensors to recognize the presence of the separator card not withstanding the fact that it is covered by an opaque layer constituted of the misfed document.
The aforesaid U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,930 describes a prior art system for detecting a separator card in the event of a misfeed when a document (currency) covers a separator card during processing of separate batches of documents.
In addition to the magnetic strips, it is desirable to imprint separator cards with other machine readable codes or characters that represent useful data for machine processing of the documents and for discriminating the separator cards. At minimum, it is desirable to provide an imprinted numeric (or alpha-numeric) code on the separator cards that is unique to each card to enable the processing machine to identify a batch of documents that accompanies a separator card with associated data obtained from the documents among the respective batches of documents being processed. The specific separator card identifier may be imprinted in the form of a bar code, a set of characters that may be recognized by optical character recognition (OCR) equipment or magnetic character recognition systems. The separator card typically will be imprinted with other indicia indicating the orientation of the separator card as well as providing reference points that may be discerned by the various sensors of the document processing machine.
Modern document processing machines, particularly currency processing machines, operate at very high speeds with the result that various sensors used to detect, discriminate and recognize data contained in the documents must be capable of detecting and processing information extremely rapidly as well as extremely accurately. The need for high speed recognition of data, particularly optically captured data, requires very costly and sophisticated detection systems capable of providing input information to the processing software used in such machines with virtually negligible error rates. For this reason, such document processing machines tend to be costly and complex.
It is highly desirable to reduce the cost in complexity of document processing machines, particularly currency processing machines, and the present invention has as an objective the simplification of detecting and reading optically visible code information on separator cards of the type described above to thereby enable the use of less costly and less sensitive optical reading and code recognition devices to identify an individual separator card while still enabling high speed continuous processing of batches of documents separated by the separator cards that each having a unique card identifier imprinted thereon.
Generally, the larger the coded information imprinted on a document the easier it is to be detected by optical viewing and image capturing systems. Such large codes therefore are desirable to enable the use of simpler, less costly optical scanner systems, including lower resolution scanners. The problem arises, however, in that a separator card has limited space for imprinting large blocks of code thereon, particularly when a substantial portion of the separator card is imprinted or otherwise contains an extensive array of magnet strips used for detecting the separator card during high speed document processing.
Given that separator cards typically require imprinting on a single face thereof the unique card identifier (typically a multi-digit numerical sequence) and given that a bar code also must be imprinted on the same face of the separator card, a problem arises in finding a location on the card for a relatively large array of optically recognizable coded information that is machine readable during high speed processing of batches of documents and their respective separator cards. The present invention has as its objective a solution to such problem.
The present invention contemplates a separator card having an array of periodically laterally spaced magnetic strips imprinted thereon across a surface area of a separator card substrate that may be recognized and sensed by magnetic sensing device contained within a document processing machine. In addition, the invention contemplates using an array of relatively large light and dark blocks arranged in a machine readable code format wherein the blocks are disposed between and fully span the distance between the magnetic strips, as well as at least part of the distance lengthwise between the strips. Thus, the invention permits both the magnetic strips and the large block optical code array to be interleaved in a compact manner over the same area of a separator card. Because the array of light and dark blocks of optically recognizable data does not interfere with the underlying magnetic strips, separate sensors may be utilized to detect the magnetic strips and the blocks of code without interfering with any sensing of the respective magnetic and optical data.